Monday, January 19, 2015

So, did you catch the latest meme? The last popular thing going around your social circles spreading like wildfire across the world? Yeah you did. Because you're up to date, follow what's happening.

But the idea of memes as originated by Richard Dawkins, implied so much more than cute cats and magical proposals. The problem with the idea of memes is that it seems like an almost useless idea. '

The idea was that people transfer ideas and that these ideas can be though of as form of idea-gene for a culture. So, a meme, insted of a gene. The idea being that culture as we know it is based on a very large set of memes that interact. Like the meme of capitalism. Or the idea of communism. The idea of rock, of musicals, of hammering a nail, screwing a screw, adding numbers or even the very idea of numbers.'

The problem with "memes" is that they are so hard to define, since most everything is a meme. Any thing that you can think of, is a meme. Now, if it's a good meme, you should be able to transfer that meme to someone else. To be a good meme, it has to be contagious. Like gangnam style. More than one billion people saw that video. Now, that's a succesful meme.

Last night I got this great idea of how to optimize the workflow at work.So, I presented the idea to my boss, but he just turned it down. Now, was it a bad idea? Or was it a bad meme?Baybe the idea was great, but the meme I wrapped it into, wasn't very succesful in propagating.

So, is my idea dead? Maybe. But, even if my idea is bad, could I wrap it into a succesful meme anyway?

Sadly, I probably could. A good meme doesn't have to be a good idea. Back up 20.000 years and back then, the pressure was different and a good meme had to have some real value. Like the meme of how you best kill a large animal. That meme will help you survive.

I have no idea what the value of the "Gangnam Style"-meme is or how it progress our culture and way of light. I have no problem seeing the value of the "this is how you make fire"-meme. But the "Gangnam Style"-meme?

Anyway, I'm writing this to try to propogate another meme. But it's a sublte one.So subtle that I seem to be needing a lot of words to describe it.

There are simple memes, like the meme of "2+2=4". It's simple. And it spreads. Or the meme of "sweet is good". But there are more complex ideas. Like the idea of phenomenology. That is a more complex idea, a much more complex meme. To understand that meme, you would have to understand other memes first.

And the meme I want to share with you, is very complex. I need to explain a few concepts before I can even come close to explaining the meme I want to transfer to you.
So, I'm asking for you to indulge me. And in return, I will give you a meme.